PANTRY PROVIDES EASTER DINNER

More than 150 people supplied with donated food, candy

More than 150 people received turkeys, hams and Easter baskets Friday morning during the Temecula Community Pantry’s annual Easter event, which helps area senior citizens and families celebrate the holiday.

“I’m so grateful for this,” said Danette Lewis, a Temecula resident who lives in a nearby Pujol Street apartment.

Without the generosity of the people who donated the items and helped coordinate the event, Lewis said she doesn’t know what she would have done. Since her husband died in 2011, she has been on a fixed income with much of that money going toward the almost $1,000 she pays in rent each month.

“It would not be Easter,” she said. “It would have been a religious observance only.”

With the donated items, Lewis said she planned to put together a nice spread for her 17-year-old son, who is studying to be a scientist, and her 25-year-old son who is coming to visit.

Randy Taylor, the pantry’s board president, said recipients this year received a full complement of items for their meals: a ham or a turkey, fixings for the sides, milk, butter, eggs, potatoes, desserts and veggies.

In some of the boxes, there also was meat provided by the Albertsons supermarket on Temecula Parkway.

For families with children, there were Easter baskets filled with colorful candy and a stuffed duck or stuffed bunny.

“We get them sugared up over there and get them sustained here,” Taylor said, standing near the area where people were picking up the meal boxes and bags of dairy products.

To help with the delivery of the items, the pantry was assisted by Boy Scouts from Troop 384, who lugged boxes and bags to cars, and Girl Scouts from Troop 1099, who helped pass out the Easter baskets.

Ken Nordstrom, a Scoutmaster, said having the children there was a great lesson that helps them appreciate all the more the things they have.

“They’re learning what community service is all about,” he said.

Taylor said the city’s residents really came through again to make the event come together. Much of the food was collected by Grace Presbyterian Women’s Bible Study, and the Assistance League came through with hams. Carole Murphy, a pantry volunteer who helps with the nonprofit’s accounting, said her grandchildren teamed up to assemble all of the baskets and fill the bags of candy for the older children.

The pantry — a resource for the area’s homeless and needy that provides showers, food and clothing — has been doing the Easter event since 1986.

“In all that time, we’ve never had to turn someone away,” Taylor said.

Alberta Ramirez, a woman who lives on the Pechanga reservation, said she really appreciated the food, especially as the event fell at the end of the month with her budget stretched thin.